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Day: February 7, 2013

The 2013 Sustainable Water Management Conference will be held in Nashville, Tennessee on April 7-10, 2013. Throughout the four-day event, which features two Sunday pre-conference workshops, 28 technical sessions, and one poster session, participants will learn the benefits of sustainability planning and how it leads to cohesive communities and utility systems optimization.

The conference will address a wide range of topics concerning sustainable water management, including energy efficiency and water conservation, demand forecasting and utility revenue projections, and community involvement in watershed health.

The University of California Davis has been asked by The World Bank to host a global conference focused on the topic “climate smart agriculture.” The conference will take place March 20-22, 2013 on the University of California Davis campus. This will be the second science-based conference on the topic; the first was held in October 2011. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute science-based knowledge to help shape the global policy discussions about how agriculture can play a positive role in the environmental challenges the world is facing.

Instead of a single webinar on the draft National Climate Assessment (NCA), as was previously announced, the Security and Sustainability Forum and Second Nature will host a webinar series around the report. Each webinar will present the NCA findings and allow time to discuss priorities for grappling with the challenges posed by extreme weather events and other social and economic disruptions resulting from a changing climate. The first session “Findings from the National Climate Assessment” will take place on February 20, 2013 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EST. Panelists for session 1 will include members of the National Climate Assessment Development & Advisory Committee (NCADAC) which is responsible for synthesizing and summarizing the contributions of experts to the report. The panel will discuss the findings from the report and answer audience questions.

Session 2: “Implications of the National Climate Assessment” will take place on March 14, 2013 from 1:15 to 2:45 PM EST. During Session 2, NCA lead authors and sustainability leaders from local government, higher education, and industry will identify and discuss priorities for addressing destabilizing threats posed by a changing climate.

The USGCRP recently announced the online availability of a suite of scenarios on climate, sea level rise, land use and land cover, and other conditions. These scenarios were developed as input to the U.S. National Climate Assessment. The scenarios were developed by multiple agencies in consultation with a National Climate Assessment working group whose members include both university-based and federal research scientists.

EPA, along with the Climate Registry, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, and the Association of Climate Change Officers will host the Climate Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. from February 27 through March 1, 2013. Following a successful inaugural event in 2012, the Climate Leadership Conference is dedicated to professionals addressing global climate change through policy, innovation, and business solutions. This event gathers forward-thinking leaders from business, government, academia, and the non-profit community to explore energy and climate related solutions, introduce new opportunities, and provide support to leaders taking action on climate change. The Climate Leadership Awards will be presented at a ceremony on February 28, 2013.

EPA’s Office of Research and Development recently awarded 14 grantee projects on climate-induced changes in extreme events in the context of air and water quality management. A goal of this research funding is to seek a better understanding of the hazards (the extreme events) and to establish ways for climate scientists, impact assessment modelers, air and water quality managers, and other stakeholders to produce information necessary to form sound policy in relation to extreme events and their impact on air and water quality under a changing climate. At this upcoming forum, researchers from across the country will present their research plans and early results.

To attend this event in-person, please email Whitney Beck (beck.whitney@epa.gov) no later than Friday, February 15, 2013 and provide name, email address, and affiliation of each person planning to attend. For those unable to attend in person, the presentations will be broadcast via webinar. Register for the webinar by visiting: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/events/#feb2613.